A home network typically includes one or more user terminals that may access the Internet via an access network. A residential gateway is typically positioned between the home network and the access network in order to facilitate communications between the user terminals of the home network and network elements outside of the home network, and to provide network-offered services to the user terminals. A home network may be implemented as a local area in which no quality-of-service (QOS) mechanism is available (i.e., each user terminal is free to use the bandwidth of the home network). Disadvantageously, however, since no QOS mechanism is available in the home network, bandwidth of the home network consumed by communications between user terminals of the home network may result in insufficient bandwidth for communications to and from the home network via the residential gateway.